"Oh, I was thinking more minotaur," said Professor Natsume. "Oni doesn't quite fit. Whereas your sister Nabiki was definitely more harpy than anything else."
"Her hands were turned into wings, and her legs looked all wrong," said Akane with a shudder.
"So she's got hands again," said Ranma.
"There were problems with her transformation, but I suspect all three of you had the same difficulties," said the Professor.
"How's that?" asked Akane, trying not to rock the van.
"You may have noticed that the splices are unstable," said the Professor. "That you've continued to mutate after leaving the Yakuza."
"Yeah," grunted Akane. "I kinda noticed."
"In your sister Nabiki's case - she received vulture at 35%, crow 7%, and spider at 5%," said the Professor. "I was able to stabilize her and put her at a mere 12% overall."
"Oh, so you were able to do it after all," said Ranma. "That was your sister?"
"Yes, now if I could just convince her to stop clinging to walls," said the Professor. "She keeps putting handprints on the ceiling."
"You think you can do that for me?" asked Akane. If the Professor had had success with Nabiki - that was a positive sign wasn't it?
"We'll know by tomorrow," said the Professor.
She could hear voices fading in and out. Memories began to filter in as she did.
This boy "Ranma" and this "Professor" - how she had a chance to regain a more normal life. Not as the twisted monster she'd become.
"Well, she certainly looks different."
Was that? Yes, that was that Ranma boy. Something seemed fuzzy about her memories - but that wasn't unusual since the Yakuza's little "experiment."
"There were some problems with reducing her overall mass, and she still has some animalistic aspects," came the Professor's voice from somewhere in that gray fog, "but she's hardly going to be triggering 'Bigfoot' sightings or panic when she goes out in public."
Akane wondered what all that meant. Oh yeah. She was supposed to be 'backengineered' where a lot of the things done by the Yakuza were reduced in scope.
"So how is she?" That was that Ranma's voice again. Odd that even with the gray fog, she seemed to be thinking clearer than ever since the Yakuza. The cotton interfering with her thoughts was faded.
"Looks like a complete success. Stabilized - there's no danger of her mutating uncontrollably or her body rejecting her own organs. Tissue density, particularly as regards the bone and ligament structure, is still 300% of what you'd expect of a normal human. So she might look like she weighs ninety six kilos - she's actually much heavier than that. In terms of pure physical strength, she's nearly your level."
"Yeah, maybe," said Ranma's voice. "Ya know - she's actually kind of cute now."
Akane grabbed onto that comment. Having regarded herself as having become a hideous monster, the idea that she had become less so was something she wanted very badly.
"She's almost awake," said the Professor, sounding amused. "There's a very good chance she can hear us at this point."
"oops," said Ranma.
"Well, it HAS been four days now," said the Professor. "I suspect she's going to need help doing much of anything."
"Yeah, well, I'll get Nabiki then - she's already gone through it I guess," said Ranma.
Akane grunted as she slowly opened her eyes and brought a hand up. To her relief, the horn-nails were gone and that hand looked very human. "Mrror."
"Now there may be some gaps and fuzzy areas in your memory, that's a normal effect of anesthesia. Especially after several days." The Professor rummaged around and eventually held up a small mirror to reveal to Akane that she now looked -
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(Posted Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:43)
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